LANGENES, Barent.
[Early second edition of this important pocket atlas][Caert-Thresoor Inhoudende de tafelen des gantsche Werelts Landen...]Middleburg: Langenes, 1599. Oblong 8vo, modern vellum gilt, new endpapers; two parts in one; title lacking, pp. (xiii) (with frontis of Magellan's ship Victoria) + 462; pp. 196 (lacking pp. 193-4, incl. map 'Ins Vaygates' + (2) (table of maps, lacking 2pp?). Light damp staining to lower right throughout, loss to right hand margin of a few maps, and several with nicks and tearsAn early second edition of the Caert-Thresoor, a state between Koeman's Lan 1 & Lan 2, mentioned as a variant of Lan2. It still lacks the maps of Africa and America in Part II, yet having the latitude scales added to most of the maps, and including the maps engraved by English engraver Benjamin Wright. The text of the Caert-Thresoor was written by Langenes and the maps mostly engraved by Pieter van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius, although here the maps of Java, Sumatra, Madagascar and St Helena have been replaced with ones by Wright. Later editions had text by Petrus Bertius, and are much more familiar. The first part of the atlas contains two maps of the world by Jodocus Hondius, with maps of the continents and European countries; the second part covers the rest of the world (with maps of Scio, Rhodes and Cyprus as they were part of the Ottoman dominions). A rare atlas.KOEMAN: Lan 2, 'This variant obviously represents the the oldest version of the second edition'.
[Ref: 11659]
£12,500.00
($16,038 • €14,038 rates)

KOEHLER, Johann David.
[Atlases of the ancient and modern worlds]Descriptio orbis antiqui in XLIV tabulis exhibita...; Atlas Manualis Scholasticus et Itinerarius...Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel, 1720. Folio, full panelled calf, spine in compartments, gilt, with morocco title label; Part 1: engr. title & index, 44 double-page maps, as called for; Part II; engr. title & index, 16 double-page maps, as called for, all maps in full original colour.Two atlases bound together. The first is an atlas of the ancient world, with maps of the countries decorated with illustrations of old coins; the second is a modern atlas, with maps of the world, continents and European countries.
[Ref: 11660]
£8,500.00
($10,906 • €9,546 rates)

DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES.
[A Greek description of the world in the second century C.E.]Tes palai kai tes nyn Oikoumenes Periegesis, sive Dionysii Geographia Emendata & Locupletata Additione scil. Geographiae Hodernae Græco Carmine pariter donatæ. Cum 16 tabulis geographicis. Ab Edv. Wells, A.M.Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1704. First Edition. 8vo., contemporary full calf; pp. (viii) + 116 + (8)(index), 16 maps, as called for. A few shallow worm holes in boards, ink mss, ownership inscription on front pastedown dated 1705.An edition of the 'Oikoumenes Periegesis', a description of the world written in Greek hexameter verse by Dionysius Periegetes ('Dionysus the traveller') c.130 C.E. When written it was a popular school book and here, after it had been edited, translated into Latin and annotated by Edward Wells, it belonged to an undergraduate of St John's College Cambridge. Edward Wells (1667-1727) also prepared 16 maps for the work.McLAUGHLIN: 205.
[Ref: 18425]
£850.00
($1,091 • €955 rates)

PINE, John.
[The story of the Spanish Armada from the House of Lords tapestries]The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords: Representing the several Engagements Between the English and Spanish Fleets. In the ever memorable Year MDLXXXVIII...London, John Pine, 1739. Later full calf gilt, marbled edges; engr. title, dedication, pp. (ii) (list of subscribers) + 24, engr. map, 10 maritime views, 10 charts printed in pairs, the views and charts printed in blue within black separately-printed decorative borders.A superb commemoration of the Spanish Armada of 1588. The book contains ten sea battle views drawn by Clement Lemprière after tapestries hanging in the House of Lords; and ten charts of the progress of the skirmishes drawn by Hubert-François Gravelot after Robert Adams, all engraved by John Pine. In 1591 Lord Howard of Effingham commissioned the Dutch marine painter Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom to design ten scenes of the Spanish Armada to be made into tapestry wall-hangings by François Spierinck of Delft. In 1616 the tapestries were bought by James I, who had them hung in the House of Lords, where they remained through Revolution and Restoration, only to be destroyed when the Houses of Parliament burnt down in 1834. This left Pine’s book as the only record, so it is lucky that Pine worried that ''Time, or Accident, or moths may deface these valuable shadows'. The charts were copied from those of Robert Adam, engraved by Augustine Ryther and published in 1588. The text is an historical account of the Armada, a description of the plates and an explanation of the medals and other ornaments.MCC: 4.
[Ref: 14002]
£18,500.00
($23,736 • €20,776 rates)

PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista.
[The rare first edition of Piranesi's study of the antiquities of Rome]Le Antichità Romane.Rome: Bouchard & Gravier, 1756-7. 4 vols, large folio, contemporary full calf, gilt decorated in compartments, black calf title & volume labels on spines, marbled edges and endpapers. Vol I: pp. [xi]+40+xi+iii+iv+iii+[ii], engraved frontis portrait and 44 numbered plates (6 double-page, one two-sheet map, 7 single page, thirty pages with two plates), with 8 engravings in text. Vol II: pp. 63 numbered plates (one two-sheet folding plate, 46 double-page, 16 single page including title and list of plates. Vol III: 54 numbered plates (one two-sheet folding plate, 46 double-page and 10 single-page, including title). Vol IV: 57 numbered plates (five two-sheet folding, 24 double-page, 28 single page including title and index). Complete. Some spotting throughout.A fine example of the first edition, second issue, of Piranesi's monumental survey of the antiquities of Rome, with which he established himself as the leading light of the archaeology of Rome. Having spent eight years recording artefacts and buildings, including the extensive remains of sepulchres, he published this collection of over two hundred plates. About half of the items he recorded are now lost. According to Piranesi himself only seventy copies of the first issue had been printed before he lost patience with his patron Viscount Charlemont's failure to send funds promised to underwrite the costs of publication. He removed the dedications to each volume, expunged Charlemont's name from the text and added the text of two letters he sent to the viscount demanding the promised funds (dated February 1757). He also had the first letter displayed in the Vatican, Barberini and Corsini Libraries in an attempt to embarrass Charlemont to pay, as an ink manuscript note to the letter printed here states. This footnote, composed by Piranesi and probably written by him, also appears in the British Library's example of the Antichità, so perhaps was an addition Piranesi made to every English customer's copies.Provenance: with the bookplate of Hugh, Duke of Westminster, dated 1884.
[Ref: 18074]
£92,500.00
($118,678 • €103,878 rates)

PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista.
[Three of Piranesi's studies of the antiquities of Rome]Lapides Capitolini... [&] Le Rovine del Castello dell'Acqua Giulia... [&] Descrizione e Disegno dell' Emissario del Lago Albano...Rome: Piranesi et al,, 1762-4. Large folio, contemporary full calf, gilt decorated in compartments, black calf title labels on spines, marbled edges and endpapers. Three works in one. Part I: half-title, etched title, frontis. dedication portrait, two-sheet folding plate, pp. (iv)+61 with two inset plates. Part II: half-title, etched title, pp. 26 with three inset plates, 18 numbered plates on 17 sheets. Part III: etched title, pp. 19 with two inset plates, 9 numbered plates, including 7 double-page and one two-sheet folding.Three of Piranesi's studies of the antiquities of Rome. The 'Lapides Capitolini', dedicated to Clement XIII, records the inscriptions on monuments in the Capitoline Hill, including a list of consuls up to the time of Tiberias. The second work describes the fountainhead of the 'Aqua Julia'. The last is the first of a series of three publications by Piranesi on the antiquities of the region of Lake Albano, including images of cavernous reservoirs reminiscent of Piranesi's 'Carceri'. An early printing: later versions substituted Piranesi's 'Antichita di Cora' for the 'Lago Albano'.Provenance: with the bookplate of Hugh, Duke of Westminster, dated 1884.
[Ref: 18087]
£12,500.00
($16,038 • €14,038 rates)

GELLÉE, Claude.
[Claude Lorrain's 'Book of Truth']Liber Veritatis; or A Collection of Prints after the original designs of Claude le Lorrain; in the collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. Executed by Richard Earlom in the Manner and Taste of the Drawings...3 vols. London: Boydell & Co, 1777 (vols 1 & 2) , & Hurst, Robinson & Co, 1819. Folio, matching later half calf gilt, edges uncut; Vol I: mezzotint frontis portrait of Claude, pp. 14 (incl. title), 100 numbered mezzotint plates printed in sepia; Vol II: pp. 5 (incl. title), plates 101-200; Vol III: mezzotint frontis portrait of Earlom, pp. (viii)(incl. title), stipple portrait of Boydell + 100 numbered mezzotints. Complete. Boards worn, some spotting of plates.A fine collection of 300 mezzotints engraved by Earlom after the works of Claude Gellée (c. 1600-82), better known as Claude (of) Lorraine, a painter who helped popularise landscapes. While still in his thirties his client list included Pope Urban VIII. However this fame led to a number of works being mis-attributed to him, often fraudulently, so in 1636 he started cataloguing his works by making tinted outline drawings of each painting he completed, with the name of the purchaser marked. Six sets of this 'Liber Veritatis' or 'Book of Truth' were sent around Europe, allowing the authenticity of Claude's paintings to be checked. One set came into the art collection of the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, and it was this example that was copied and published by John Boydell, with the text listing the titles, original owners and present owners (if known). The publication must have been a success because the third volume of mezzotints was published over 40 years later and 15 years after Boydell's death, this time from drawing in other collections besides the Duke of Devonshire's. By 1819 Earlom, the engraver of all three hundred landscapes, was 76. In order to reproduce the drawings accurately Boydell turned to mezzotint, a method not often used for landscapes but, printed in sepia, mimicked the pen and wash originals effectively. The result was described by Col. Abbey as 'a landmark in the history of reproduction of master drawings'.ABBEY: Scenery 200; the Duke of Devonshire's 'Liber Veritatis' sketchbook is now in the British Museum.
[Ref: 13778]
£11,000.00
($14,113 • €12,353 rates)

PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista.
[Piranesi's four-volume study of the antiquities of Rome]Le Antichità Romane.Rome: Stamperia Salomoni, 1784. 4 vols, large folio, half morocco, gilt decorated in compartments, marbled boards, new endpapers. Vol I: pp. [ii]+40+xi+iii+iv+iii+[ii], engraved frontis. portrait and 44 numbered plates (6 double-page, one two-sheet map, 7 single page, thirty pages with two plates), with 8 engravings in text. Vol II: pp. 63 numbered plates (one two-sheet folding plate, 46 double-page, 16 single page including title and list of plates). Vol III: 54 numbered plates (one two-sheet folding plate, 46 double-page and 10 single-page, including title). Vol IV: 57 numbered plates (five two-sheet folding, 24 double-page, 28 single page including title and index) plus two un-numbered plates. Complete. A few plates age-toned.Piranesi's monumental survey of the antiquities of Rome, with which he established himself as the leading light of the archaeology of Rome. Having spent eight years recording artefacts and buildings, including the extensive remains of sepulchres, he published this collection of of over two hundred plates. About half of the items he recorded are now lost. Compared with the first edition there is one plate replaced, XLIV of volume IV, with the two unnumbered plates added after.
[Ref: 18096]
£58,000.00
($74,414 • €65,134 rates)